Pellet newbie checking in

cardmechanic

New member
Hi! Recently ordered a MAK 2* from BPS during their Memorial Day sale. Stoked for it to get here. Have used a MES 40" for the last 8 or so years and am excited for the world of temperatures above 275.

I used an amzn tray with mailbox mod on the MES, so I'm somewhat familiar with pellets. Looking forward to not having to 'dry' out the pellets in the oven beforehand. Which leads me to my question, do you guys leave pellets in the hopper between uses or store them in home despot buckets?
 

sschorr

Member
Welcome! I'm also a newbie on this forum, and also just ordered a MAK 2 Star over the weekend - gonna be the slowest 2-3 weeks in history! :)

I have been pellet pooper smoking for several years using a Camp Chef DLX. One of the features it has is a pellet dump, and so does the MAK. I always dump my pellets back into a 5 gallon bucket after a smoke. the main reason is that I like to switch pellet flavors: cherry and apple are our favorites, plus oak, alder, pecan and some specialty ones like apple mash/black cherry/wine barrel oak. Since I always keep my grills covered, moisture is not a concern, but if you leave pellets in, moisture can cause some PITA isssues.
 

Salmonsmoker

New member
Hi! Recently ordered a MAK 2* from BPS during their Memorial Day sale. Stoked for it to get here. Have used a MES 40" for the last 8 or so years and am excited for the world of temperatures above 275.

I used an amzn tray with mailbox mod on the MES, so I'm somewhat familiar with pellets. Looking forward to not having to 'dry' out the pellets in the oven beforehand. Which leads me to my question, do you guys leave pellets in the hopper between uses or store them in home despot buckets?

Congrats on your purchase! I'm from the PNW where one might say we get a lot of rain. I have my bulk pellets stored in containers, but my MAK w/cover lives under the roof overhang and I don't dump pellets after a cook. Even after a month between cooks in the winter, I've never had a problem with damp pellets.
 

TentHunter

Moderator
Welcome to the forum!


As far as leaving the pellets in the hopper or not, it depends greatly upon your climate, how often you use the grill and where/how it's stored.

If you live in a very humid climate, then it's not a bad idea to dump the pellets and store them in air-tight containers.

Here in NE Ohio Summers are humid and Winter air is bone dry. We leave the pellets in the hopper, unless switching flavors, BUT... we store our MAK in a shed so it's out of the weather, and unless it's for an overnight cook, we tend to put pretty much just put in what pellets we need, plus a little extra for the cook. So we never have a huge amount of pellets left in the hopper anyway.
 
Welcome from Northern California. You will love the 2 Star. Best purchase I have made in long, long time. In my climate, I leave pellets in the hopper year round and it is not under a patio cover. I occasionally cover with MAK cover in the winter when heavy rain expected, but not always. Water has made its way to the hopper only on one occasion in 7 years and I still don’t know why. That said, I always have a lot of pellets stored in buckets in multiple flavors so I don’t run out!
 

cardmechanic

New member
Thanks for the welcome everyone.

If you live in a very humid climate, then it's not a bad idea to dump the pellets and store them in air-tight containers.

Here in NE Ohio Summers are humid and Winter air is bone dry.

Having grown up near Akron, I'm pretty familiar with that humidity and unfortunately now in the DC metro area humidity is much higher here. I had a few extra buckets with gamma seal lids previously used to hold grain for brewing that I'm using.

Wife just let me know the smoker has just been delivered, work won't be over soon enough. Un-boxing and hopefully starting the seasoning run tonight and leaning towards ribs for the first run this weekend.
 

cardmechanic

New member
Thanks for the heads up, probably would have found myself digging out the engine hoist to try and solo this. Convinced a buddy to come over and help in return for some beers and promises of future delicious meats.
 
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